This book was a phenomenal masterpiece I absolutely love love love it! I was hooked from the very first page and I genuinely couldn’t put it down I read it everywhere!

This book was definitely the book of year for me it was fast- paced, intense and so gripping! I loved it!

I really liked the premise of this book and the beginning had me immediately hooked. I liked the fact it felt like a gossip girl meets younger vibes storyline. The socialites, the charity case and the manipulation that comes with access to everything you’ve ever wanted.

Liv was an interesting character. There was glimpses of vulnerability but the overarching want to succeed pushed her beyond her own limits. Kat was what you’d expect from a child who was rich beyond measure and given everything bar the love she needed from her parents.

There was a trope of secondary characters which aided in the story yet I felt they didn’t add much depth despite when they died.

The second half of this I think gets a bit lost in the dialogue. It’s very convoluted and is just back and forth. By the end it didn’t feel like the stakes were that high and it was more about pointing fingers. Some of the plot twists didn’t land and seemed to be constructed out of convenience more than anything else.

Thank you to Storm publishing and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. This is my honest opinion.

In The Writers’ Retreat, Liv is thrilled to be invited to a writers’ retreat and have a publisher interested in the book she’s written. It’s based on her life and the dysfunctional friendship group she formed in college. From there, things get crazy. She meets up with these old ‘friends’ and stirs up plenty of drama, along with some deaths. These are some seriously unhappy and unlikable women, obsessed with themselves and their pasts. Their story is told alternating between the past and the present, with some major twists thrown in. The tale is well-written and I liked the surprises, but the characters are without redeeming qualities.
Thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a fun, twisty read. I liked how the timeline alternated between then and now as it helped build the story as it went along. I'm not always a fan of flashbacks in books but I think this one was done well. I have read many of these types of novels with a group isolation type trope and they are hit or miss for me but this one was a hit.

I have read a couple of this author's other novels so I decided to give this one a shot and I'm glad I did. It was a pretty quick read and I found it hard to put down once I started.

Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this Advanced Reader’s Copy of The Writers’ Retreat by Samantha Verant due to be published July 22, 2025.
When Liv Montgomery is invited on an exclusive, week-long writing retreat, she can’t believe her luck. It’s every writer’s dream. But Liv winning a place was certainly no accident. Is someone out to get Liv and ruin her dream of becoming a writer?

I had previously read The Lucky Widow and The Private Chef so I assumed I would enjoy this book by the same author. I was right! I was hooked from the beginning. It was very easy reading, very descriptive, and I loved the way it went from “Now” to “Then” for the backstory to catch up on what was happening at the present time. It had everything a great thriller should have – murder, backstabbing, twists – I loved it!

#NetGalley #SamanthaVerant #TheWritersRetreat #StormPublishing